FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

A dark, cloudy evening tinged with fog cast upon and blanketed Malie as the sun began to set. A mizzle fell and pattered the city's residents walking or driving home from work to add to its gloom.

Brooke was preparing to leave for her boyfriend's house, whom she'd been with for over a year. She ran a brush through her straight black hair, undoing its last kink before leaving the restroom.

Her skin was gently tanned; she had light freckling on her cheeks. She also had a couple of shimmery piercings, one on her right nostril and another on her bellybutton.

She walked to her dresser and fit a white parka and jeans over her lean figure, popped a tiny pill in her mouth after shaking it into her a palm from a bottle, and washed it down with a half-filled water cup on her dresser, then went downstairs and put on sneakers before heading out the door under the gentle rain. The scent of wet asphalt sat fresh in the air.

He lived a few blocks down.

Her name was her father's idea, who had gathered inspiration from the Accord that he once respected highly after having worked in Unova on business many years before the war. She'd have a native one otherwise, although the locals referred to her as Paloke sometimes, which was the Alolan variant; they did the same with her boyfriend's.

Malie City, where she resided, was a quaint, coastal area within Alola. Despite being a 'City' by name, it was more like a village. Its dark green residential structures and shops were built close together; steep rich grassy mountains and trees encompassed the city's outskirts, resembling the verdant color of the structures they defended.

Brooke strolled its stone walkways adorned with puffy green trees under a slightly muggy, tepid mountainside climate and stuffed her hands into her parka's pockets, passing locals, some of whom chatted by storefronts. She glanced up the cries of trumbeak and the clacking beaks of toucannon perched atop lamp posts and the edges of roofs while passing breezes slightly moved and played with her hair. She jaywalked a street over after a couple of old cars passed.

Managers and employees cleaned and closed shop in what would become a chain reaction as it got later.

A gengar swept the floor of a mart, pushing small piles of dirt it gathered from corners outside.

A golduck spit water at windows and wiped them with a cloth afterward, peering at a dry spot it couldn't scrub clean.

A machoke wearing a thick hoodie helped a woman pull a store's front gate down to conceal the inside. She patted its shoulder afterward, and they walked away together.

Store and restaurant workers served last-minute customers and diners, with some subtly rushing them out.

Buses weren't a thing in Malie, but several vehicles with a large white or black spotted sticker plastered across the side parked at curbsides or drove around. In front of the spots was 'Spot!' in bold print. They were this city's taxis. Anyone in Malie could work for the company and use their own vehicle if they registered with Spot! officially. Hau'oli and Heahea looked to introduce something similar in the coming years.

Brooke had moved from Akala Island to Ula'ula with her parents three years ago. She was now nineteen. They'd relocated to a calmer place to retire, but she had despised the move at first, especially since it had ripped her from her old school, friends, and detached her from civilization.

Malie was a world of its own, which she'd learned to appreciate and where she met her boyfriend two years in. She had established a life, although that life was slow due to the city not having much to it and having an older population for the most part.

The dress style was more or less outdated too, at least when compared to Akala and Melemele, both of which had left traditional Alolan wear in the dust for years now.

Traditional wear was more laid-back, from tees with colorful floral and beach patterns and sundresses to loose linen pants, knee-length shorts, and polo shirts.

The lifestyle and culture were vastly different in Ula'ula; Brooke had learned a lot living here, such as the fact that most immigrants residing illegally in Alola stayed mainly in Poni and Ula'ula, as the chance of authority catching and deporting them were reduced greatly.

Many sought refuge from economic hardship and unsafe living conditions in their regions. While Hau'oli and Heahea City were preferred due to more and better opportunities, they were a huge risk, so cities like Malie were the best option. Some migrants came with enough money to rent homes, but others came with nothing to their names. However, the community cared for them.

One thing in particular Brooke liked and simultaneously disliked about this city was its serenity, which really just depended on her mood. She felt safer here, the people were sociable, and the population was in the high thousands compared to twice that in bigger cities. The air was fresher too.

People rarely drove unless they lived at Malie's outskirts roughly fifteen minutes out by car. Most walked and some biked. They used to ride pokémon and use Pokégear decades ago, but they'd left those in the past after the era in which older towns and cities truly caught up.

It didn't take long to reach her boyfriend's residence. She'd waved to neighbors in yards or stores and greeted a few acquaintances along the way.

Brooke stood at his door and knocked, waiting several minutes before he answered. Her lover looked half asleep in a wrinkled polo and shorts. She sucked her teeth. "Ayh, Parker, you fell asleep?" She spoke in a modest Alolan accent, which had slightly faltered over time due to her chasing and befriending foreigners mainly from the Accord.

She rolled her eyes and watched him fix his short hair. He'd left her standing here for far too long.

"Uh… yeah, sorry, hun. I had to work later than usual last night. Come in, though." He grinned, eyeing her face down to the small piercing on her nose.

His accent was significantly less pronounced, as he was from Sinnoh but had moved to Alola with his parents years ago.

He moved aside and let Brooke enter. He was above average height and stood slightly over her.

"It's fine. Hair was getting wet, though." She went to sit on the couch.

This was her first established relationship, which had gone well so far. She and Parker were the same age, or Brooke's parents would have flipped out. They weren't strict but didn't want her with anyone too much older.

"Alcohol or water?" Parker asked.

"Eh, I'm gonna cut back. Water." Brooke had first started drinking before she moved to Malie with her old group of friends and ex-'boyfriend' in her mid-teens and had narrowly missed drowning in an alcoholic pit because of it.

She had toned it down since but still adored how it made her feel, so she'd been stoked to find out that Parker drank shortly after meeting him. She discovered this after the first time he had invited her over by going through his kitchen cabinets.

She could buy alcohol herself around Malie since most marts didn't care as long as the customer was eighteen, but Brooke didn't want to deal with hiding it from her parents. That was another pro when she compared Malie to Heahea. She remembered having to get her older friends to buy for her.

After Parker went to the kitchen nearby, she saw two pokémon enter. She knew his torracat, but Brooke saw one walk in behind him she had never once laid eyes on.

She studied its body, stance as it stood with a slight hunch, head lowered, knuckles almost to the floor, and its overall rough demeanor. "I didn't know you had a lycan." Brooke took the cup Parker handed her while keeping her eyes on the midnight lycanroc. She scanned the bright red streaks layered over its white fur, razor-sharp claws, sleek, slim form, and gleaming red eyes.

"His name's Vix. I've had him for several days now, but I've kept him inside his great ball most of the time since he's more than stubborn. We're still training, but this one's tough to crack." Parker stood next to her. "Catching a midnight is a gamble. Some of my buddies have slightly gentler ones."

"I can see why. He looks like he'll rip your throat out if you irritate him." She giggled, her lips curling into a nervous smile, but she pinned her words onto herself and faltered both. That pokémon creeped her out.

Brooke sipped her water.

She'd never seen one up close, but it unsettled her about as much as she would have assumed. She couldn't imagine waking up in the middle of the night to Vix standing in her vicinity with those piercing eyes. It would be a horror movie.

"I've gotta find out how to get to him," Parker said. "The challenge is nice, but I'll regret the efforts if he won't budge." Parker stared at the noncompliant pokémon standing dominantly on its hind legs, staring back up at him as if challenging his owner.

---

Brooke had planned to spend the night at Parker's house but wasn't expecting him to fall asleep beside her within the same hour, even though he had told her he had a long day.

She got up from the couch and turned off the TV in front of them on a glass table, then went and set her empty cup on the kitchen counter. Under the curtained window over the sink were a few potted plants angled to receive sunlight during the day. "Might as well leave…" Brooke mumbled. She'd let him get some sleep.

However, she flinched as she turned around to exit the dark kitchen at Vix standing hunched at its entrance with sagged shoulders. His eyes glowed a bright red in dim lighting. "Oh… ahm, hi, Vix."

Brooke looked down at him from where she stood at a distance. Although she tensed before his radiating presence, she again had a slight urge to touch him as if a form of morbid curiosity. He was a captured pokémon, meaning he wouldn't use those sharp teeth or claws on her and hadn't on Parker, but still, she was good. That thing could probably sense fear.

Oddly enough, he was staring at her, but not in a challenging manner as it had been with Parker an hour ago. Brooke cocked her head, kept in place by Vix's commanding stature. His stance, along with his eyes, appeared softer, but he wore a menacing smirk contesting both.

She left Parker's house after he let up and walked away, disappearing into his owner's room.

It had stopped raining, but a subtle chill lingered along with a moist and faintly sweet earthy scent. She was a couple of blocks away while looking up at a dark sky dotted with stars.

Around her were dead stores and people hanging out in their front yards. Malie shut down early besides a couple of chain restaurants and markets, which Brooke had the hardest time dealing with when she first moved here. Couldn't even order a late-night pizza—there wasn't a Wikiblux either, so her membership points had long expired, but it was whatever now.

She spotted a few people walking and singled out a few women in skimpy clothing. Sex work was how a number of women got by in Alola, and an alarming number were trapped in the field. It was the region's dirty secret that was less frequent of an issue in both tourist-heavy islands due to more accountability and a bigger sense of law. Brooke had never seen it so openly in Akala.

Back to Vix, maybe she'd ask that lycanroc what his problem was, even though it would end in him staring at her while making her look like an idiot. She didn't know how to force compliance in pokémon, but perhaps she could stir something in him.

"Hey. Ho, Paloke!"

She turned around and looked back at a small market with puffed cheeks and an eye roll. An old couple owned it, and since it was close to her residence, her parents sent her there frequently, meaning they'd seen Brooke on her worst hair days.

She walked back and saw an old man standing by the door. "Howzit, Niko?" He wore a floral shirt and washed-out pants.

"Sorry to be a bother, sistah. I'm glad I caught you walking by. What're you doing out so late?" He smiled.

"I was at my boyfriend's. I'm going home now." Brooke didn't even care about handing over personal info. It was impossible to conceal business in a small town, meaning she had to care twice more about her actions since it'd come full-circle nine times out of ten.

"Ah, Pakeli was helping me stock just the other day. Great guy." He coughed. "But I was gon' ask if you could lend me a hand here. Keanu's away, so I've been having a hard time gating up. I don't want to throw out my back again."

"'Ae (yes), sure thing." Brooke went to one side and held the rope while Niko held the other, pulling the creaky metal wall down over the glass door and watching him lock it.

"Much appreciated. I got to head home and eat supper before it gets cold, or the wife gets upset."

"Anytime." She continued her walk home.

Brooke looked up at a group of toucannon fly past who followed trumbeak. They landed on the edge of roofs, lit lamp posts, bamboo trees planted before shops and restaurants, or powerlines lining the sidewalk while crying or clacking their beaks.

A couple of cutiefly landed on planted flowers sprouting from bushes along the pavement or in patches in people's yards to pollinate. They mainly belonged to seniors who found it to be a decent hobby. Some even had feeders hanging on their porches filled with sweet nectar for them to sip.

She reached her home in minutes and got the door open, greeting her mother and father on the living room couch before heading upstairs. She made a pit stop at the restroom in the hall to wash off and brush her teeth before closing herself in her room.

It was a modest one with a pile of clothing in one of the corners as she tended to toss her clothes after a long day's work.

She had a large dreamcatcher hanging from the ceiling over her bed with stringed feathers draped down from it.

Brooke also had a small treadmill and other light workout equipment in another corner to stay in shape, though she'd fallen off recently.

She turned the dial on the portable heater plugged in on her floor that functioned as a fan too. Brooke had to buy it since the homes in Malie didn't have central air.

She took off her parka, pants, and haphazardly tossed them atop the pile, then sat on her bed in a tee and pajama shorts she changed into. Her small purse hung on the post attached to the headboard holding scattered miscellaneous items and slots for the few credit cards she carried.

Brooke reached down by the side of the bed and pulled an attached snack drawer out, grabbing a bag of baked salty chips and a water bottle. She lay on her side and got comfy, switching on the TV atop her dresser and putting on a channel that ran decent movies.

She yawned while opening the crinkly bag. The channel currently played an action film halfway through its runtime titled: 'Runaway Raikou,' displaying a typical dark hand-to-hand combat scene between two men on top of a building under heavy rain. Lightning made of bad CGI lit the scene whenever it struck around them.

She lay back and thought about Vix again, popping a chip in her mouth and chewing. She wasn't sure whether she'd tell Parker about what happened tomorrow. It wasn't that serious, just strange.